IS GOD'S VISION OF LIFE ENOUGH FOR US?

"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"  

Micah 6:8 

As we gaze through the window, directing our vision toward things outside our daily experience, we feel that the life that we now live is not enough.  Looking out that window, our hearts ignore the life that is right in front of us, longing for an imaginary life that we think we should be living.  We feel that we are trapped because our Enemy, Satan, is lying to us, lies such as we imagine we should be living to find happiness and fulfillment.  Dissatisfied with our lives, our hearts cannot find contentment and joy.  We want the "perfect life," which we can not attain.   Instead of wishing for the unattainable, why don't we ask ourselves if that is what God wants from us?  Is this imaginary life going to make me more fulfilled as a Christian whose main desire must be to do the will of his Father?


I.   GOD HAS FILLED US FULL!

We live in a world where everyone is striving to attain something.  Always striving for something more as if what we have is not enough.  We want a better car, a better house, a better spouse, a better church, better brethren, better neighbors, a better job, a better salary, a better way of entertainment or a better way to spend our leisure time, a better (you fill in the blank).  Yet we miss all the riches our Father in heaven has placed right in front of us.  We ignore those riches that are the apple of our eyes and hearts.  Yes, the people in front of us!  They were not given to us by our Father in heaven to take for granted!  They were not placed in our lives by accident or because we tried so hard to attain them. These blessings are not our earthly promotions or bonus money.  They are gifts from our God in heaven!  They have been administered to us to love, care for, and protect. Nevertheless, we seem to treasure them not at all and act as if they are not enough.  We are absolutely ungrateful! Don't forget that God sees, and He is not happy with the way we administer His riches in our life. When we behave in this manner, we are telling Him, "You are not enough for me."

We spend all of our time being busy looking for a life that is just a dream made up in our minds rather than being content with how our God fills our lives.  That awesome God who is the Creator of the universe and who breathed into us the breath of life.  We do not care to stop and listen to His voice through His Word that our souls might be filled by Him with all His riches.  We do not care that we dwell in God's presence being filled with His overflowing Grace.  Do you know that this is what God expects of us?   

• What Does God Expect of Us?

"When You said, 'Seek My face,' my heart said to You, 'Your face, O Lord, I shall seek'" (Psalm 27:8).

God demands that His children spend time with Him daily.  He demands that we seek Him daily. Of course, this won't happen with the blink of an eye, especially if we wrongly think that we are giving generously to God daily.  We must surrender every intention of our own and subject it to the will of God!  Our time must be His first!  All of our wants and needs must be laid at the feet of our Lord. Our primary intent and purpose must be that of seeking God diligently with all of our heart, soul, and mind every day.  We must seek Him and hide His Word deep in the corners of our heart as a real treasure. Of course, that demands time and effort.  What that means is that we must put aside everything that is in the way of serving our Lord.  It means that we must "soak ourselves" in the wholeness of God daily,  loving Him and the people He has given us to love now.  We must open our blind heart to see and appreciate God's gifts to us! We must pause and notice them!  We must turn inward and examine our hearts.  You can rest assured that by doing this, you will appreciate and be aware that in every way our Lord has already fulfilled us.  He has filled us full!  You see, when we look back rather than pressing on or reaching forward, we run the risk of missing or taking for granted what is already in front of us.

God has His own dreams and purposes for us.  How sad to miss out on them!   So my question is, "Do we really want to miss out on the life that God has purposed for us?  A life designed to bless and prosper us and those He has placed in our lives.  Do we want to miss that life because we are too busy dreaming those dreams we have made up for ourselves?  Think about that!

1. To love those whom God has placed in front of us is enough!  
2. To live a simpler life, one that is not complicated by all the webs of this world's wants that entangle us and choke us is enough!  
3. To spend time with our God alone each day of our walk here on earth, listening and obeying His voice is enough.  
4. To purposely choose a different life, a godly life that is different from the life of those around us is what God requires of us, and that should be enough!  
5. We must believe in our hearts that the life that our God has given us is to love and live for others, and this must be enough for us!  

There is no need to pile more on our plates, more and more. We must not allow Satan to deceive us into thinking that our life is too boring, too simple, meaningless, and hopeless!  We must change our way of thinking! We are deceiving ourselves if we think that we must do something else to be complete in Him and find contentment and joy.  This, in no way, can fulfill our lives.  It will just add more chaos and deception, forcing us to believe a lie.  Which lie?  That the life that we are living now has no purpose and is not enough.  Are we going to let Satan with all his lying do what the flesh wants or what the world wants from us?  Not at all!  We must do God's will and do what He requires of us

"He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"  

Micah 6:8 

CONCLUSION:

Thus, we don't need to justify before any man our decision to live the life that we are living.  We walk before God, and we walk with Him, and He is all in all!  He is all that we need to survive in this life!  He is enough!  We must desire to do His will and what He requires from us without giving any excuses.  So why pile on our plate other things that are irrelevant in our life?  Why not make our dreams point toward God rather than the world?

God is simple and direct toward us.  He requires that we do righteousness, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him all the days of our walk here on earth.  So we purpose to focus on doing God's will wherever He may have placed us.  It is enough!   

May this way of thinking sink deeply into our hearts. May we commit our lives to the Lord, trusting Him all of our heart and mind.  May we with joyful heart do all that He requires of us, which is to do good, to do righteousness, to love kindness or mercy, and to walk humbly with Him all the days of our lives here on earth.  Finally, may we humbly allow Him to transform us and teach us all His righteous ways that we may bear abundant fruit to His glory.

"Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day... Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in justice, and He teaches the humble His way"  (Psalm 25:5-9).

"Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it.  He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday"  (Psalm 37:5-6).

Luci